Need help identifying this type of scrap

[icejj]

I've seen interesting methods that don't require entirely dissolving the substrate metal. I'm working on one that is best for me. I have gold filled jewelry and other items, and e-scrap, a lot of it military.

What type of methods have you seen?

 

[jphayesjr]

Videos posted by Sreetips and others. They involve weak acids and long holding times. I'll experiment and report.

 

[Brett Novak]

good find - if they are magnetic, 99% sure it's gold plate over nickel. Easy to process with AR.

If they aren't magnetic, may be gold plate over brass, copper or aluminum. Still easy to process with AR.

 

[icejj]

To provide an update, I was told that these were military grade pins. Has anyone processed military grade pins?

 

[Brett Novak]

Yes - and again, check if they are magnetic. That will at least be an easy test if they are plated, and an idea of what base metal.

Either way, a good bath in AR will dissolve everything eventually, and then just precipitate out the gold.

 

[icejj]

good find - if they are magnetic, 99% sure it's gold plate over nickel. Easy to process with AR.

If they aren't magnetic, may be gold plate over brass, copper or aluminum. Still easy to process with AR.

Thanks! I checked and they are either magnetic or seminagnetic.

 

[icejj]

Yes - and again, check if they are magnetic. That will at least be an easy test if they are plated, and an idea of what base metal.

Either way, a good bath in AR will dissolve everything eventually, and then just precipitate out the gold.

Thanks. What was your yield for military grade pins?

 

[jphayesjr]

Researching, when I find evidence these methods work, I will share.

 

[Alondro]

& for what it is worth - the highest yield pins I have ever seen ran about 12 grams per kilo --- the came out of "old" microwave gear

Edit to add; - the plating was so thick I had to boil them in nitric in order for the acid to get under the gold & dissolve the brass away

Kurt

Kinda like the military-grade pins I have. The plating is so thick it holds it's tube-shape when all the base metal is gone. Tends to make them float cuz they get gas bubbles stuck inside. I have to squish them with a stirring rod to make them sink, and they sink FAST! Straight to the bottom.

They're very big pins, and I only have a few ounces of them. So I cut them in half and toss them into my 1000ml concentrated stock bottle each time I have new stock solution that I suspect has a relatively high amount of PMs stuck in it (usually gold from the last HCl pre-treatment of very thinly-plated electronics parts. Some gold does dissolve from such thin plating when no base metals are left.

The base metal in the big military electronics pins gets dissolved, recovering any PMs in the stock, and the thick heavy gold foils are easily recovered and washed afterward.

I do it that way to keep the solution volume LOW, since those big pins are almost certainly BERYLLIUM copper alloy cores. I want as low a volume of that as possible, as it needs to be treated as SUPER-toxic waste! If I were to put those pins in a big mixture of modern pins, then I'd have deadly beryllium ion in a GIANT volume of solution.

 

[icejj]

Just to update you all... I made a deal with who I bought the batch of pins from, so I ended up processing the batch. The yield for the pins was around 8-8.5 grams per kilogram!

 

[dominikq]

Need help identifying this type of scrap quaestion two​

strong magnesium from the hard drive reacts only in place of the blue circle
I think it's imprint from an orange line from gold-plated rods
red circle probably connecting
origin hewelt packard in germany year 1994 orange tapes gray housings
stop or layer or nordic gold ???
as well as the yellow line, the magnet reacts slightly to these two elements
layer gold stop rather not or maybe nordic,

 

[Yggdrasil]

Need help identifying this type of scrap quaestion two​

strong magnesium from the hard drive reacts only in place of the blue circle
I think it's imprint from an orange line from gold-plated rods
red circle probably connecting
origin hewelt packard in germany year 1994 orange tapes gray housings
stop or layer or nordic gold ???
as well as the yellow line, the magnet reacts slightly to these two elements
layer gold stop rather not or maybe nordic,




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Welcome to us.
I believe you mean Magnet not Magnesium.
And if it is Gold plated it can be any metal under the plating, but it should be the whole length not just the ends.
On can say there is strong reasons to.
So I suspect Brass is the most if not all of it.
Put a drop of HCl or Nitric on it and see if it reacts.

 

[dominikq]

another question about the type of metal, four photos yellow line, red cross photo of the whole, Is there gold in it? silver color ram and bios socket, what type of metal was it made of? it definitely contains nickel and iron, because strong magnesium attracts it single pins, branded connectors amphenol, board ibm and cisco, maybe it contains silver? or it is the so-called white gold? for the day now not have any acid,

 

[Yggdrasil]

another question about the type of metal, four photos yellow line, red cross photo of the whole, Is there gold in it? silver color ram and bios socket, what type of metal was it made of? it definitely contains nickel and iron, because strong magnesium attracts it single pins, branded connectors amphenol, board ibm and cisco, maybe it contains silver? or it is the so-called white gold? for the day now not have any acid,

View attachment 62656
View attachment 62657
View attachment 62658

These are not of any value, they are aluminum or some other base metal alloy.
If they are fully plated with Gold they may have some value.
And please check your spelling, Magnesium is a metal and Magnets are what you refer to.

 

[Alondro]

These are not of any value, they are aluminum or some other base metal alloy.
If they are fully plated with Gold they may have some value.
And please check your spelling, Magnesium is a metal and Magnets are what you refer to.

I tested some of those, as I test everything once. No trace of PMs at all. Likely tin-plated as adding nitric to the HCl dissolve created the dreaded goo!

 

[anachronism]

I tested some of those, as I test everything once. No trace of PMs at all. Likely tin-plated as adding nitric to the HCl dissolve created the dreaded goo!

It's a combi of Tin ones and Nickel ones Alondro. Old EDO RAM type stuff.